Lots of new product in Store

With Summer well under way, and the holiday weekend approaching, I know everyone is super busy! When you get a chance take a little break and look at these great products I've just added!

The new Chatterbox is stunning! Also just added clear stamps from Autumn Leaves, Making Memories Passport, Two lines from Kelly Panacci, a new school line from Scenic Route, Appleton , and more!

For 15 % off your entire order, including items already on sale use discount code - july4th. This coupon is good through July 4th.

While you are on the site check out our message board, the ladies are friendly, they always have something going on, like bingo, challenges, and such, and new members are always welcome!

Have a great week, and a safe holiday weekend!

Cathy

The Men in our lives....

The month of June... a wonderful time to think about all of the "Men in our Lives"... so that's exactly what we did. We, as a Design Theme decided on this theme together. We hope it will inspire all of you to scrapbook the memories (from long ago or right now) of YOUR MEN! Thanks for taking a look.

Here's Trish's layout... with such a wonderful memory of her daughter and husband. The title is so fun and the layering of papers and embellishments makes this layout a real winner! She used papers from Dream Street's Clubhouse line, and some thickers from American Crafts. The hand cut stars really draw your eye right down the page... awesome job Trish!

Awww, isn't this the sweetest page about Debbie and her "men"! Debbie's design is so pleasing to the eye... and I especially love the 3 hearts that run down the side... super cute! Debbie use the Sassafras Lass Robotics line for this layout, it's awesome to see these papers used in a non-themey way. She also used Bazzill edges in orange, a Scenic Route chipboard alpha in brown and some Fancy Pants flourishes for a finishing touch. Thanks for sharing your special birthday moment with us Debbie, you rock!

Morag's MAN is next up! I love seeing this beautiful picture of Morag and her DH, love this formal color combination and all of the lovely details that makes this page so beautiful! Morag chose the classy Teresa Collins Damask Collection for her patterned paper line and enhanced the layout with flowers by Bazzill and little letters by Making Memories. Just a beautiful layout Morag.

Kay showcased her favorite MEN with the fun and funky layout using Cosmo Cricket's Get Happy line of papers and stickers! I love how the black and white photo pops of the papers and how all of her embellies surround the photo. But do you know what I like the best?! The awesome bubble wrap painting technique. Isn't that SO COOL??, and it matches the dot paper! She also used American Crafts thickers, Making Memories little letters and some clay shapes that she made and painted. Awesome job Kay, thanks for sharing!

Wow, Kary is lucky enough to have lots of MEN in her life! :P and this awesome layout really showcases all of them! Those little round pictures are so pefectly placed, and really give us a look at her life. She chose to use the Rusy Pickle Bottle Rocket's line for her project, and the colors are really fun! She also used embellishments from the My Mind's Eye Lush Blooms collection and little letters by Making Memories. As usual Kary's layering makes the layout so dimensional, love it Kary!

Only one Man in my life, cuz I live in a house full of girls.... and here he is. My MAN and my youngest DD.... I think he is her best friend. They spend so much time together. :) I used some older Scenic Route for my layout, the Laurel line of papers and embellishments, and I must say that I still love this paper. But I had fun updating it with some new fun finds... such as these Maya Road sheer journaling blocks (notice how you can add colored paper to the back of these to make them look totally different), these Scenic Route chipboard letters and some glittery American Crafts letters too. I also added these fun Scenic Route rubons.

Thanks so much for checking out what we've been working on!!!

~ Dana

Use Your Ribbon Stash!

I have one and I know you do too!
A huge stash of RIBBONS!
It is easy to get stuck in a rut with your ribbons.

I find myself using them in the same way over and over.
Tying it on a tag,
Using it as a border or
Stapling it as a "fringe"

The other day I challenged myself to use my ribbons in a new and different way. (You may have seen this done before, but forgot! - so I am jogging your memory!)
Here is my first project:

It is easy and you can make one (or two or three) too! Here's how:

First you will need the following:
Your project (I chose to do a card for demonstration purposes and because I wasn't sure how it would come out so I didn't want to commit to a bigger project!)
An anywhere hole punch (I used the MM one)
a length of ribbon approximately 12-16 inches long (thinner ribbons work best!)
a large eye needle (usually used for doll making, etc)
a ruler
a pencil or pen

1. Now you will need to decide on the placement for your flower. Use your pencil to make a center point. Next use the ruler to mark 4-6 additional spots .75-1.5 inches away from your center (in a star-like pattern)

2. Use the anywhere hole punch to punch holes in the marked spots.

3. Thread your needle with the ribbon and sew up through the middle hole leaving a small tail on the opposite side. Sew back down through one of your "petal" holes.


4. To complete the next "petal" go back up through the middle hole and then down into another "petal" hole. Repeat the process until you have completed all the petals. (Make sure you keep the ribbon from twisting on the underside or your page will become very bumpy!)

5. To finish the flower tape the ends to the back of the project!

Now, go have some fun making some ribbon flowers!!!

I will be back soon with another new (or forgotten) ribbon project!!!

xoxoxo

Trish

Super Star STYLE!

Do you get STUCK when it's time to use lots of patterned paper on your layouts? Do you tend to only use 1 or 2? Well... one of my favorite techniques to use on my layouts, is a big pile of patterned paper. Did you notice that I used 6 (yep SIX) different patterns on this layout... and the only cardstock I used was white?? I love a BUSY scrapbook page... and if you do too, but are afraid to use lots of patterned paper, here are a few tips that might help you out.

#1 - match the papers by COLOR. Choosing papers from a single line can really help you with this step. I used 5 patterned papers from the We R Memory Keepers FRENZY line, and threw in one more from my stash. Let the paper designers do the matching work for you! Add a touch of black too!

#2 - think about SCALE when you choose your papers. If all of your papers have a large scale design, they will tend to clash, even if the colors match. Notice how the papers I have chosen vary in scale (the size of the pattern.) A large scale diagonal strip and a small scale dot, plus a medium scale grid (in 3 different colors) too. Put them all together and your eye won't get stuck on any one paper.

#3 - choose papers of similar style. These are all bright and bold and work perfectly together.

I also threw in lots of embellies to busy up the page... take a look at the WRMK Frenzy Chipboard Words. There is one for every theme... and some Doodlebug glitter chipboard letters in Ladybug match perfectly! My little bit of black comes from super cool Glitz rubons and the fun girl rubons by Scenic Route, love how the butterfly ads a little feminine touch.

Thanks so much for taking a look... and hope you will try some serious layering of patterned paper soon!

~ Dana

Thinking about Details

Have you ever finished a page and thought it could use just "a bit more of something", but didn't know where to start? That's a great time to look around your scrap room, grab your extra embellishments, ink, pen and bling and start thinking about details. Adding that extra creative flair to your page can be as simple as inking a die cut, or layering your ribbon. In the layout below I used MME Garden Party Lush Blooms pattern paper and die cuts to create this page about our sweet dog Maddie.



After the basic page was laid out I started adding my detail. I little bling and ink can go a long way! Can you spot all the little extras that were added? (hint-there are eleven in all!)

1. Hand cut scallop pattern on edge of mat paper
2. Cut out paisley pieces from patterned paper
3. Used brown ink to highlight die cut and paper edges
4. Pleated paper strips to make ribbon
5. Outlined chipboard letters with pen
6. Tinted felt flower with Glimmer Mist to match
7. Added gemstone bling to die cuts, pp & crown
8. Used stickles on felt butterfly & crown
9. Created dimension by layering paper
10. Printed Maddies name on pp using a Dymo & sanding letters
11. Cut die cut circles to create flower petals

Next time you want to add a little extra "something" to your pages, take a second look at your scrapping supplies, and definitely think "details" For more inspiration take a peek at the awesome Ally Scraps Gallery. You can also find the MME Lush Blooms collection and Heidi Swapp felt butterflies & flowers at the Ally Scraps store.


Happy Scrapping!
~Kay

A fun little technique to try--

Ever want to add a little fun texture to your layouts? Well, I have a cute technique that you can use to add a funky "notebook paper" edge to your paper--it's super easy and can add a little bit of fun to your page. All you need are:

paper
ruler
pen or pencil
hole punch
Xacto or craft knife



On the backside of your paper, mark every 1/2 inch about 1/4 inch from the edge--you can make it more than 1/4 inch if you want.



After marking the paper, use your hole punch to make holes where the dots are. You can use a standard office hole punch, or a smaller hole punch (like I used)--it's completely up to you!!



Once your holes are made, use your craft knife to make "slits" in the paper from the hole to the edge--make sure it's a narrow cut--



Once this is done, turn the paper over and distress the edges with an ink pad if you want--take your finger and lift some of the edges up to make it have a bit of dimension--



There you have it! A simple, fun way to make your own "notebook edged" paper!!

Another fun way to add some extra "oomph" to your pages is to add a little bling to your frames on your layouts--here is a frame I cut from cardstock with my Cricut and added some Glitz Icing around the edges--it just adds a bit more fun to your layout!!



Here is my completed layout that I did using these techniques:







Now go have fun and be sure to post your layout in the gallery!!

~~Kary

Want to get more mileage from a sketch?

Have you checked out the latest sketch challenge on the forum? You'll notice that my collaborator Dana and I cooked up a special treat for this one - I used her awesome layout to create the June 6 sketch!

Here is the sketch:

And here is her page, Hot Summer Days:

Now, I know a lot of you love working with sketches, but how many different pages do you think you can get from one sketch? Well, I decided to use the sketch above to create a page - but with a twist! That is, a 90-degree twist to the left. Here is my page, Dig This, featuring the totally fun and bright Quick Quotes - Good Times paper line, Scenic Route chipboard alphas, and a fun little rub-on from this Scenic Route sheet:

My page is based on the original sketch, turned 90-degrees to the left:



Naturally, I rearranged a few of the elements in order to make the design flow well in the new configuration, but I was still guided by the original sketch.

So how many other ways can you think of to rearrange a sketch and come up with a whole new page design? Well, I could turn the original sketch 90-degrees to the right:

Or turn it 180 degrees:

Or instead of turning it, try flipping it! Here is the sketch flipped horizontally:

And here it is flipped vertically (notice that flipping it vertically gives a slightly different effect than rotating it 180 degrees):

Not enough options for you yet? Well, now start combining the above transformations for even more page designs! For example, here is the sketch after being first flipped vertically, and then rotated to the left:

But hey, combine the transformations in a different order and you get yet another page option! This is what happens when I first rotate left, and then flip vertically:

You can imagine how many different, new page designs you can achieve this way!

Finally, if you love a sketch but you have lots of picture you want to scrap on the layout, you can always convert a one-page sketch to a 2-page layout. Here is just one option for this sketch:

Of course, there could be lots of other ways to extend the sketch to 2-pages... maybe start with one of the rotation/transformations above, and go from there.

Hopefully this have given you some ideas for ways to get even more mileage from your sketches! I would love to see some examples for this month's Sketch Challenge that utilize some of these tips for modifying the sketch and letting it go even further toward inspiring your creativity! Have fun!

- Debbie

More Cogsmo

I do love the Cogsmo range from Cosmo Cricket. The cheery colours are perfect for brightening up any space.

As my thoughts have turned to teacher gifts, I wanted something practical. I found some wooden pen holders in a sale which would be perfect for altering.


This project was a real doddle to complete and oh so much fun. The base is made from stripey Bandwidth. The main body is covered in Links.



Those cute robots are taken from Mr Roboto. Yes, I do like to cut out little details, but you could easily use Cosgsmo die-cuts.

Because its Cosmo, then of course the papers are double-sided - perfectly co-ordinating cardstock to compliment your project. I used a Sizzix die for the monogram using the plain sides of card. Mount onto black or use black pen to outline your shapes for real POW.

I hope that you'll take some Cogsmo away with you and give him a good home!

Morag x

PS. I see that My Mind's Eye Garden Party has arrived at AllyScraps. Be sure to watch this space as the Design team get to work!

OCTOBER AFTERNOON!

It's here, it's here!

AllyScraps is one of the first shops to recieve the new October Afternoon lines; Daydream and Detours. They are just as gorgeous as ALL October Afternoon products. Take a look here.

Not only that there are loads of gorgeous stamps in. Cathy has some of my favourites in there and the stamps perform brilliantly.

So why not pop in to have a look - just don't buy it all before I get there!

Morag x

She's Up to Something!

Yep!
That Heidi Swapp has done it again!

She has managed to create another product that we will all have to have! - 3 great new pattern paper collections!!!
I used the new Heidi Swapp Carefree line to make this page of my daughter, Hailey at Valentine's Day. The pink and yellow are so soft together!
Heidi is not only talented, but knows that "I" am a scrapbook supply hoarder because she created these lines to coincidentally match her first release products! I was able to add my "old school" Heidi Swapp plastic letters and some of the many rolls of Heidi Swapp tape I have saved for the "perfect project"!
I hand stitched around the hearts in yellow and then used another great new product, gelly glitter gelly powder in Sweet Heart, by Gelatins, to make my chipboard swirls. (they are much cuter in real life!) Finally I added some American Crafts and Jolee's by EK Success folwers, Making Memories brads, Doodlebug glitter chipboard heart and some miscellaneous ribbons for complete page! (oh and I pulled out my Fastenator to attach those ribbons!)
Now, go hurry up and order some of these delicious papers and embellishments before they are gone!

xoxoxo
Trish